I Remembered the Twilight
by JBert
Summary: When Midna shatters the mirror behind her, she finally ends Link's adventure for good. But what could ever compare to saving Hyrule with her? What could he ever hope to do after that? Link looks back on his life. One-shot.


**Hello, ! Whew... First real fanfiction. I read a great Link x Zelda a few days ago, called Link's Reward. It's by TennisWriter456, check it out if you want to know the inspiration for this story and have time to read 57 chapters. Some good, some not-so-good, but a good read. ANYWAY, I've had some really depressing crap bouncing around in my brain for a while, so I wrote this. It was all in one sitting with no editing, so please forgive any errors or bad style. I do my best. So, without further ado...**

I remembered the twilight.

…

I climbed the ladder back up to my tree house and stood at the door in silent thought for a moment before I walked back into my old life. It took me about a second to realize I didn't belong in Ordon anymore. I still had the remnants of the last breakfast I had eaten before leaving with Rusl sitting on my table. That seemed like ages ago. All I distinctly remember from those days was herding goats. Somehow, over the course of a few months, my whole life had been reduced to a few scattered memories. I knew in an instant I just couldn't adapt again. I would need to find some other way to keep living; I couldn't go back. Being with you does that.

That night I looked back through all of the things I had kept from my earlier years. For the first time in a long while I brought my old lantern down to the basement, but this time I lit the main light and took a good look at the place. I had saved more sentimental things than just an orange rupee – a piece of goat horn I accidentally broke off while herding, the cast I had gotten as a reminder not to ride Epona under low-hanging branches, the first sword I ever had, from long before Rusl gave me the wooden one that started it all. I put my slingshot down among the rest of them, never really intending to take it back. After a moment's hesitation I blew out my lantern and the light, and sat down in the middle of the floor waiting for my eyes to adjust. After a while it almost felt like I could have gotten on all fours and started sniffing, but I missed the familiar pressure on my back, telling me where to go and how to make things better. I missed you, Midna.

…

Zelda was finally being crowned Queen of Hyrule, having found some high-and-mighty noble from an unknown land to make a husband of her status. She noticed me in the crowd, of course – I was wearing the clothes of the Hero of Time for the occasion. It seemed like the thing to do, for old time's sake. She didn't even acknowledge me. I don't know why I expected her to, but I thought that saving her life and kingdom, and being left alone with her in the middle of the Gerudo Desert after you left might have counted for something. But she had her responsibilities, and I guess I had mine, although I still didn't know what they were, five years later.

I wasn't the kingdom's hero, I was only her savior. Nobody knew what I had done. Only Ganondorf, Zant, Zelda, myself, and you had any clue of what I had been through, and of these two were dead and you were long gone. Well, the goddesses knew too, I suppose, much good it did me. Nobody else noticed me, so neither did Zelda. Only fitting, really. I wouldn't know what to do with attention even if it was me up there, marrying the princess. So I didn't say anything when she glanced at me and walked past, but I knew you would have. You would have made sure to make a sarcastic remark like always, and I thought of you then.

…

Mayor Bo died some ten years after Ganondorf had been finally killed. He congratulated me on marrying Ilia, publicly requested I take his place as mayor, and died quietly in his sleep. Yes, I married Ilia. Not Zelda, not any of the thousands I had saved, just Ilia. To this day I don't know why. Maybe it was just to make her happy. Maybe it was just to make her father happy. Maybe it was just what was expected: maybe it just made everyone else happy. All I know is that it didn't really make me happy, but nothing really could.

Oh, sure, we had our moments. She loved me deeply, I knew she always had. Every time she took Epona off to Ordon's spring, or chastised me for whatever little thing I had done, or told me to not worry so much about everything, she was just saying "I love you" in her own way. I never found anything to say back. Before you taught me to stand up for myself more, I couldn't, and afterwards I didn't want to. That's one of the things I guess I always loved about you. But that evening she came with me up to the ranch and we sat for a long time. I suppose she was thinking about me, and her father, and our future – I was thinking about the past. Bo had given me his old Iron Boots. I had wrestled gorons in those boots, and sunk to the bottom of Lake Hylia. I had entirely entrusted my life to those boots before jumping into a magnetic slipstream. You got a good laugh out of that.

So when she kissed me, and I saw the moon and thought about all the time I had spent in the twilight, I couldn't stop thinking of you.

…

It was really just a routine trip. Leave Ordon, bring cheese and milk to Castle Town, sell them, bring back the money. By that point, I'd been doing it mindlessly for years. I was surprised to see Agitha in the middle of Hyrule field, but I guess after so many years she was still out looking for bugs. Once I stopped bringing them to her she didn't have any other company. Everyone else still thought she was crazy, not without reason, and… well, even golden bugs only live so long. But that didn't explain why she was so intently focused on the ground in the spot she was sitting. I wasn't too reassured when she explained she had found a strange rock, but I got off of Epona nonetheless, just for something to do. I gasped when I saw what she had found.

I don't really know what happened. I suppose I must have snatched the last bit of the Fused Shadow Ganondorf had broken, ran off on Epona, and left poor Agitha in the dust. Epona was exhausted when I finally got down to Lake Hylia, but I ignored her and rushed off to the man who had always run the cannon in the middle of the lake. It was only then I learned he was dead. Another memento of my adventure gone to the ages. His daughter didn't really believe me when I said I had known her father, but she sent me off to the desert anyway. I almost killed myself getting to the mirror chamber; it's a lot harder without you to warp me, and help me across gaps, and I wasn't feeling as strong as I used to. But when I got there, I didn't even notice. I don't know what I wanted to happen – if I wanted the broken and depowered Fused Shadow to somehow fix the mirror, or summon you back. But whatever I wanted, it sure as hell didn't happen. So instead, I broke down and cried. And, for the first time in years, it rained in Gerudo desert, directly on me.

…

I've done some things I'm not too proud of in my life. I never did love my wife like I should've. I didn't pay too much attention to my kids, always thinking of the past when I was useful. I ran off for a few years when I was in my forties, just to walk around Hyrule for a while. It didn't help. Prince Ralis had moved on, Darbus was an old man, Telma had died. Zelda hadn't thought of me in years, I'm sure, but I never even got to see her again after her coronation until her funeral, decades later. She had a good life, and helped a lot of people. I tried, I really did, but once you were gone and my only real purpose was fulfilled, I had nothing else to do. The twilight was part of my life, and I had been living only half of what I wanted for so incredibly long. By the time I got back Ilia too was dead. Disease. I fit in even less after that, of course, because I simply hadn't been there. I won't deny it, but I never wanted to hurt anybody.

I've also done some things that outshine the feats of the Hero of Time, all the knights of Hyrule, and a few generations of Zeldas combined. I saved every single man, woman, and child that was alive at the time of the Mirror, and indirectly saved everyone born since. I saved all four light spirits, technically including Ordon. I brought Zant and Ganondorf to justice, and I returned the Twilight Princess to her true form and allowed the Twilight Realm to resume its normal course. At least, I hope and I pray it did. But nobody knows that. By now, not even I know that. It's not who I am anymore. I'm a wanderer, looking for something, anything, to match the adventure of what I did when I was twenty. But it's impossible, of course.

With all I've done, my one true regret is that I never said anything to you. Not "thank you," not "I love you," not even "goodbye."

…

Whenever the urge struck me, I would pull out this decrepit notebook and write down my thoughts. Whenever I thought of you, or missed you, I would wright something. Every last line is filled, and the margins are black with cramped writing, double-packed into every last space. I wanted to save this page for this moment, because now I'm sure that I'm finally dying.

I doubt that anyone will be too sad. Nobody I ever knew is alive, except Colin. He's grown up to be a famed ex-knight, with the love and adoration I never got from Hyrule. He deserves it, too. He saved Hyrule a great deal of grief in his day. But he doesn't know me. I haven't spoken in ten years. I've just been living where I can, suffering where I can't. I can only help people in small ways, now, but I still feel the need to. It's different when instead of killing the bearer of the Triforce of Power, you pick up an old lady's groceries, (although their backs are all healthier than mine, by now,) and instead of saving Hyrule you get a brief, toothless smile.

You brought me so much in so little time. Skimming over these pages I can remember vividly every instant I spent traveling with you. The look on your face the first time I truly died, and a fairy brought me back to deal the killing blow to that stupid plant. I've died a million times since, every time I remember the last look you ever gave me. I remember how great I felt, knowing I meant something to everybody. I felt important. It was the greatest thing I could ever imagine, and I owe it all to you. But that was when I was twenty. I'm ninety now. I've gone seventy years without feeling happiness or love, because everything was downhill from there, but I think it might just have been worth it.

So, even though I never got to say it to you, I can write it on my deathbed: thank you for that. Thank you for leaving me with the best memories I could ever hope for, with the ancient piece of the Fused Shadow you always wore and the biggest piece of the Mirror I could find that night. Thank you for every single thing you did, except the last. Thank you for giving me my purpose, and damn you for taking it away.

Damn it, Midna, why did you have to go?

Please review, I want to know how I did. It felt good to write this, I may do more after my school finishes testing. (groan)


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